Festive drink driving figures

One in every 15 motorists breathalysed by Scottish police over the festive season was over the limit, almost double the ratio from the year before.

Police Scotland’s Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams said: “I am very disappointed that of the 8,632 drivers stopped and breathalysed during our Festive Road Safety Campaign, we caught 565 people for drink/drug driving offences. One in every 15 drivers breathalysed by officers were over the limit, compared with one in 28 during the same period in 2017/18.”

An average of 261 drivers were breathalysed every day during the campaign period, from December 1, 2018 to January 2, 2019. Of the 565 detected, 23 were caught driving the morning after drinking.

ACC Williams added: “It was very alarming that during this period, 33 motorists were caught more than four times over the limit.

“During the campaign Police Scotland made 64 vehicle forfeitures requests to the Procurator Fiscal as a result of drink driving.”

ACC Williams said he was encouraged by the number of calls from members of the public providing accurate information about drink drivers, adding that the reduced number of people being stopped was due to a more targeted approach based on previous information about offending and calls from the public.